What has been UO's Best and Worst changes in your opinion.

[BloodstoneGL]

These are opinions only and need no justification or any cause for a flame war. In your opinion what was the single best change you've seen made in UO, and what was the worst?

I'll go first...

The Best
Giving us the ability to lock skills. Few remember how frustrating it was to get GM in a skill just to have someone light a campfire near you and you see that dreaded message "Camping increased by 0.5, Evaluate Intelligence decreased by 0.5"!

The Worst
Publish 16 & AoS. This to me was the defining moment when the UO I loved died. Everything became item based, communities fell apart from people no longer needing to group, I had to do math just to figure out if I could PvP. AoS ran more people off than Pk's ever did.

The Runner Ups
Runner up for the best was giving us house security. Sucked getting stalked by a thief and then having your door key stolen just to have your house dry looted before you realised it lol. Can't complain though, I did it to a few people as well

Runner up for the worst for me personally has to be the implementation of Trammel. No I am not saying that Trammel wasn't needed because it very well was to keep the player base from leaving as other games were emerging without non-consensual PvP in them. I'm saying Trammel should have never been a mirror copy of what is now Felucca. It should have been another landmass all on it's on giving real reason to go to Fel other than just spawns.

 

[Bardie]

Worst definately Pub 16/AOS so sad...Best create Napa Valley WHOOOYAAA

 

[drinkbeerallday]

The Best: Publish 16. They had to do something. People were quitting because they were getting bored.

The Worst Pub is usually always the current one.

AoS was probably the worst simply because for a whole summer it was the haves and the have nots. Those that had 4/6 and those that didn't. Anyone could make a AI Archer or a WoD gimp. 4/6 was hard to get unless you paid IRL $.

Also you had to loot the artifacts from the bodies of the Doom bosses. It was horrible. People would just hit each boss a few times and they'd have a script that would quickly search each corpse for artifacts and grab them before anyone else could move the rest of the crap out of the way to even see anything. Those people made 1000's of dollars.

They did fix it though!

 

[Lady Aalia]

the worst for me is patch 16 and Luna

the best (since i started in 2001) housecustomizing and gardening

 

[BloodstoneGL]

AoS was probably the worst simply because for a whole summer it was the haves and the have nots. Those that had 4/6 and those that didn't. Anyone could make a AI Archer or a WoD gimp. 4/6 was hard to get unless you paid IRL $.

Huh? AoS came out in 2003, ML came out in 2005.

 

[Black Sun]

Best:
The ability to lock both skills and stats. There was nothing worse than trying to keep your stats where you wanted them, only to recall somewhere with your warrior and have your dex or str drop because your int decided to go up.

Worst:
AoS and it's screwed up stats and modifiers for items. Made the game too confusing, even for someone who'd been playing for awhile. Ultimatly AoS is what made me stop playing for 3 years. I got sick of trying to re-learn a game I had been playing for years just because of one expansion pack.

 

[canary]

Best: customized housing.

Worst: Not being aggressive enough on EA's part to heavily invest in UO. Can you imagine how aesome this game would be if all the UO2 and UXO resources were pumped into the ACTUAL UO game?

 

[Sip-n-Shine]

just my 2 cents

Best without any trouble Skill locks.

Worst Pub16

 

[Gellor]

It is a toss up between skill/stat locks and house locking... god I remember being ultra paranoid with my house key

Worse is the luna expansion.. partially the tram expansion. The tram expansion did a little bit toward killing the community feeling and luna put the nail in the coffin.

 

[|Nox|]

4/6 was hard to get unless you paid IRL $.

My whole guild was 4/6 and no one paid RL $.

anyways..

Best .. Ren poision disrupt and no healing while poisioned made dueling alot more fun.

Worst. AOS.. power scrolls where one thing but when they added items it was a whole different game. I liked gm leather armor, a robe, sandels, straw hat and a half apron.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

Best: Custom housing. I know theres been a few, well ok a lot, of bugs from in house mechanics over the years but on the whole I think it's an addition that added fun/creativity without unbalancing anything.

Worst: The manner in which things are put in the game. It seems to me that they come up with an idea and then try and argue why not. I think it would be better if they came up with ideas that were useful or fun in the first place that didn't cause years of disruption. I include in that weapon specials, which are a perfect illustration of it - adds huge variety when it first came out but what have we had since? Toning down/nerfing. Their still 'balancing' them now. And I think the reason that the game has become this way is because it's staffed so differently now from 8-9 years ago.

 

[T_Amon_from_work]

The worst thing:
The open display of every mod on an item (AOS?). Killed more than 1 skill and they still aren't back to really worthwhile yet.

The best thing:
I have to say custom housing (AOS) - though skill locks are a really close second.

Agreed on your runner-up worst - for the same reasoning.

 

[Omnius]

worst: removing player justice and forcing everyone to play in a much more restrictive game. Quit for 4 years because of it.

Best: AoS release and having one buddy with 5/13 casting from em event items and my butcher cleaver killing people from almost a second of contact with a player.

 

[Harb]

Great question. Really great question. You plugged a couple significant events in the OP, though opinions may differ on affects.

If I had to say one thing was "the best," I'd have to say UOR and the creation of the Tram rules set. Boy that should start a flame/ counterpoint (s) - there's a lot to be said the other way (i.e. "worst thing that ever happened," and many points will be legit). I came into the UO world a little before the public beta, and suffered and enjoyed those early days of our little passtime. In hindsight however, we were in a state of decline from the moment the game went live, as so many came and went in the early days, the overwhealming majority due to the inability to enjoy a new product as they so desired. Graphics were not the draw or downside back then, and when we were followed by EQ, a simple PvP toggle was all they needed to draw and retain many of those we had lost forever. UOR gave us a second chance, which for some duration was not only adequate, it's carried us through to today. So while I also felt a sense of loss with UOR, without it, I'm certain we wouldn't be here today discussing good ole UO.

The worst I'd agree was publish 16, though I differ on the reason why. P16 remains as the only publish that permanently altered the game significantly separate of a box (I agree AOS was the most singificant "box" beyond UOR). P16 saw introduction of powerscrolls, and while the long term effect of the scrolls has been a significant positive (along with the other contents of P16), the methodology for attaining them has served as a major downside for reasons often discussed on the boards in other threads, I won't belabor the points yet again.

 

[rockytriton]

BEST: Trammel

WORST: Trammel

 

[Chaosy]

Best: Release

Worst: Anything UO:R and up.

 

[Gwendolynne]

I have only been playing for about 5 years but I am sure house security and auto refresh would have been up there if not already implemented when I started playing.

In my time and playstyle the best has been the Tokuno artifact point system. Points being accumulative even for short sessions at spawn so you did not have to camp a spot all day to acquire points for a minor artifact. Also the turn in for major artifacts gets high points - should implement a turn in like that maybe for paragon artifacts to turn in for doom artifacts or something.

The worst hands down in my opinion has been shard transfers. It is not just the dupes etc. that are attributed to the transfer there is also the weakening of community and manipulation of different shard economics.

 

[Fogsbane]

My thoughts often change, but right now I'd say ~>

Best - Removal of Player placed Tents, Customized Housing, Test Center and other temporary special themed shards.

Worst - Loss of Lord British

 

[Azmira Zalof]

Worst: Pub 16, AoS, the addition of skills without any thought of how they could be abused (spellweave, bushido, ninjitsu, necromancy, chivalry, etc.), Greater Dragons/Dread Mares, SA will probable suck just as hard as SE and ML and add more imbalanced ****.

Best: The balance publish right after AoS (I believe it was pub 25). That's the most balanced the game had been since pre pub 16.

 

[Lord Drakelord]

Best, I have to say is allowing us to set security on Doors and not have to worry about keys any more! I always hated messing with those keys, specially when I had homes in Felucca.

The worse, birth of power scroll. I feel that Power Scrolls ruined any attempts to fair PvP, where equals could meet on the battlefield. To this day I still say they should never have brought power scrolls in this world.

2nd best, the Commodity deed Box reward!

3rd best, Soul stones!

 

[Return2UO]

The best
Customised housing

The worst
All do the item based / insurance / blessed stuff. I loved knowing a vanq silver sword was the one to get when hunting the undead!


I miss learning parrying with four blade spirits cast against me and someone healing!

 

[Uvtha]

Best: Customizable houses.

Worst: Insurance/tram.

 

[S.P.A]

Best: Customisable Housing

Worst: When they split Felucca & Trammel, they should have done it the other way round; what was already in existance should have received the Trammel rule set and the new lands should have gained the Felucca rule set. That way all the existing player cities would have stayed together and only the brave moved to Felucca.

Runners-Up:

Best: Lockable skills with soulstones.

Worst: The weapon, armour and material properties changes introduced in Publish 16 with Age of Diablo. Leather armour as good as plate armour? Laughable.

 

[El Phantasmo]

Best: In recent memory, was the addition of peerless bosses. Champs got old. Otherwise, I would definately vote for not having the house keys. That really stunk.

Worst: I haven't liked how magic resist has worked in years.

 

[Calliope]

Best - Lockable skills.

Worst - Publish 16 and AoS.

 

[Nylan]

The best is easy, Trammel. ( If not for Trammel I would have quit along time ago.)

The worst is a bit harder, I am split between 3.

Item properties that came with AOS, not that they were allot easier before that.
Power scrolls
Insurance and blessed items in Felucca

 

[Asahina Yajinden]

I've only been playing 4 yr's so i'm the newb here i guess ... he he

Best the samurai empire expansion

Worst bag of sending nerf

 

[Heartseeker]

The Worst- Pub.16, made me quit for 4 years.

The best- All the great adventuring in the first couple of years.(The best PVP of any game till pub.16 came out)

 

[Lia]

Best: Customizable Housing

Worst: Item Insurance / Death of crafting

 

[HD2300]

Best: Peerless in Mondains Legacy August 2005, 3.5 years ago.

Worst: Toss up between KR and staleness from lack of change and new content.

 

[Sorcha of Sonoma]

Best 5:

1> Housing Change so no more door keys
2> Skill Locks
3> Trammel Rule Set
4> Champ Spawns
5> Customizable Housing

Worst 5:

5> Trammel being a mirror of Felucca
4> Lack of any decent overland spawns in Malas
3> Luna Vendor Mall (Could have limited Luna Housing spaces to no more than a 10x10 plot ...)
2> Elimination of old Vanquishing - Power - Force - Might - Ruin system
1> Making Felucca keep the old rule set and giving the new to Trammel (Killed a LOT of community - should have been reversed)

 

[kryptman]

Best: Custom Housing

Worst: AoS item properties



Sidenote: Pub 16 and AoS are not the same thing. Pub 16 came in July 2002, while AoS and its changes came in Feb 2003.

 

[kelmo]

The best: Siege. Thank you for this.

The worst: Making Crafters an after thought. Making it so easy any one with seven character options can craft anything for them selves. Making it so that anyone with spare characters will create a bod runner.

Destroying the culture of the village smith. Making leather the only real option. This one thing almost ruined the game for me.

I held the Crafters circle at Brit smithy in awe. They were like video rock stars. To me. Yes, the PvPers were something special, too. Something I also respected and aspired too.

While I am not the most talented PvPer, I can play that game. But playing the village Smithy? *shakes head* I fear that may never happen. Bits and pieces are all Crafters get. I am fortunate that the shard I play still values Crafters. Some of the recent changes have made Crafters more... viable.

Blame what you want. AOS, BoDs, artis... The loss of the Crafting crew is one that still eats at me.

My most haunting image associated with this game occurred at a EA community meet up I attended in D.C. "Drunk Guy" got a lot of attention at this meeting, among others. There was one other. I will never forget this old fellow. He was probably 60 years old, give or take some hard years.

He was quiet spoken, never demanding... All he wanted back from the game he so loved was his place back at the forge. A place of some respect. I knew as I watched this elderly gentleman make his plea, I would trust him. He would repair my vanq. He would repair my armor or make me a full set... What ever I needed.

There were lots of folks there that night. Lots of demands and jokes. One guy even showed up in costume. (one of about a hundred *shakes head*)

EA killed the Crafter that night. EA lost that old man with just one plea. Please. Bring the Crafters back.

Whether that quiet old man is still around. I will never forget his plea.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

This is a tough question, and in the spirit of the original post, I will try to do the absolute best and worst...but I will throw in an honorable mention.


Best Change:

Housing Security. Nothing sucked worse than having some moron in your guild PK'ed with a key and rune to your house. Nothing. When lock down and security came, it was a godsent.


Worst Change:

I am torn here, between Tram/Fel split and AoS.

I also hated Pub 16. But with Pub 16 came some good things as well, but wiht AoS came nothing good.

I will go with Tram/Fel split because it cost our game it's soul.

Honorable Mention:

Best Change:

Bonded pets...or skill/stat locks.

Worst Change:
Age of Shadows

Making Ultima Online an item-based game was an epic failure. It defeated the original concept of the game.

I miss the old skill-based model.

But even more, I miss the world many of us grew up in.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

My most haunting image associated with this game occurred at a EA community meet up I attended in D.C. "Drunk Guy" got a lot of attention at this meeting, among others. There was one other. I will never forget this old fellow. He was probably 60 years old, give or take some hard years.

He was quiet spoken, never demanding... All he wanted back from the game he so loved was his place back at the forge. A place of some respect. I knew as I watched this elderly gentleman make his plea, I would trust him. He would repair my vanq. He would repair my armor or make me a full set... What ever I needed.

--snip--

Whether that quiet old man is still around. I will never forget his plea.

You are going to make me cry!! Damn you!!!

I hate what has become of our world, but I cannot leave it.

I need a drink.

 

[Harb]

I need a drink.

I'm having one

 

[kelmo]

You are going to make me cry!! Damn you!!!

I hate what has become of our world, but I cannot leave it.

I need a drink.

I cry almost daily. I will never forget his plea. "Just let me play"

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

I'm having one

So am I.

All of us that miss the old days should meet up in pub in game.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

I cry almost daily. I will never forget his plea. "Just let me play"

Seriously...that is horrible.

I wonder if he still pays for this fiasco we call UO?

 

[Karthcove]

Best: Customizable Housing

Worst: Item Insurance / Death of crafting

/signed

 

[4th3ist]

I cry almost daily. I will never forget his plea. "Just let me play"

You're story strikes home with me to. I can reminisce about the old days all day long, but that really made me understand I guess I could say. Never played a crafter myself, but I remember back in the good 'ol days it was not uncommon to find folks who ONLY played crafters. Surely these folks are gone for good. I to grew up playing this game. Don't remember how old I was really. I'm twenty now and started playing in July 2000. So, I guess that would have made me 12 at the time. Killing the crafter coupled with item insurance was defidently a big contributor to killing the community.. Honestly, now I probably visit vendors once every two weeks. Back then, It wasn't uncommon for me to make several trips to the vendor a day.

Theres not much that hasn't been said that I can contribute now, but heres a spin for ya.. One of my least favorite changes to the game would probably be HOUSE CUSTOMIZATION. The old housing styles were nice.. They all fit in our little fantasy world. Nothing to obscure or bizzare. Now it's hard for me to run through the wild without seeing some of THE MOST tacky, hideous, disgusting looking houses.

 

[4th3ist]

So am I.

All of us that miss the old days should meet up in pub in game.

I would love to!... Oh wait... I see shiny neon colored overpowered items over there! *Quickly dissapears chasing after the carrot on the stick* Tee hee!

 

[MalagAste]

Best, The ability to custome housing...........


Worst......... changing items and adding artifacts.

 

[Ifful]

I really can't choose a single best and worst, but many changes rank very high and low in my opinion.

Some of the best:
1) Big fish weight: some people probably don't even know that big fish have weight numbers attached, but for a career fisherman like me, this was one of the best additions to the game.

2) AOS: Adding customizable housing was great, but adding item properties was even better. We were no longer stuck with boring GM armor, and getting the right equipment became an important part of character customization. Equipment, like character skill and player skill, are all an intergal part of the character, allowing players to access a nearly infinite range of random-property equipment gave more life to the UO world than any change before or since.

3) Trammel: this was added before I joined in 2000, but had UO been a Fel only game when I came across it, I doubt I would have ever joined.

4) Luna: I don't care how expensive the stuff is there: if you want a bargain, so vender hunting. If you're pressed for time, go to Luna. I will never understand where the Luna-haters are comming from, but imo, having a proper vender town is essential to shoppers who don't want to spend hours looking for a singel stone table.

Some of the Worst:
1) Limiting content to rulesets: wheter it is double resourses and powerscrolls limited to Fel, or artifacts limited to Trammel, both are equally irksome to players who want to stay in their preferred ruleset.

2) Trammel: Hey, didn't I already list this one as one of the best?? Actually, I think UO would have been far better if Trammel hadn't　been added as a facet, but rather started as an independant PvM only shard. If we had fully PvP shards and PvM shards, we wouldn't have had the problem of unbalanced facets in the first place.

3) Removal of the 3D client. Interesting how they promised to not remove existing clients before KR was up and running, and then removed 3D before KR was released, and furthermore never bothered making KR a usuable client.
Kind of like saying, "I promised to take away your house(3D) as soon as your mansion(KR) is built, but now I'm taking your house(3D) and giving you an outhouse(KR). If you don't like it, go live in the shack(2D). Enjoy!"
The 3D client was twice as good as 2D, and ten times as good as KR.

4) Slayer weapons: now this was before AOS item properties, but should have never been added that way it was. It wouldn't have been so bad is slayer properties added, say, 25% damage. But double hit? It takes away from the joy of finding good equipment when the worst slayer beats the best non-slayer. Slayer effect should have been slashed when AOS came out.

5) Last but certainly not least, Elf-only equipment. To allow elves to wear everything a human can and in addtion have elf-only equipment makes no sense at all, not matter how you choose to ignore the blatant racism shown by devs against humans. "Oh, but elves are too small for humans to wear their armor.." BS! So how can they equip human armor? It was a disgusting marketing ploy to make elves the superior race and sell more upgrades to ML, and in doing so EA basically said, "We really don't care about role playing in role playing games."

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

I would love to!... Oh wait... I see shiny neon colored overpowered items over there! *Quickly dissapears chasing after the carrot on the stick* Tee hee!

I lose more dates that way...

 

[hawkeye_pike]

Best:

• Customizing houses
• Item lockdown in houses
• Controlling skills (ability to drop and lock them)
• Lots of new skills, improving old skills
• Lots of new craftables (weapons, armor, items)

Worst:

• Splitting the world into Trammel and Felucca
• Inventing artifacts, runic crafting, powder of fortification and insurance
• Power Scrolls
• Introduction of Malas and Tokuno
• Instead of improving the world of Britannia, breaking parts of it

 

[Harlequin]

My opinion, best 10:

1) AOS, for the depth it brought
2) Pet bonding, Pack animals/Blue beetles/Fire beetles
3) House add-on
4) Customizable houses and house security in it's current form
5) Trammel
6) Fixing recall so that you don't become PK fodder for the 5 minutes going from 1 subserver to another
7) Bringing back horses (there was a time that stables stopped selling horses)
8) No need to re-stealth after every few steps
9) Introduction of different ores like shadow, gold, valorite
10) No more server full problems

Worst 10:
1) AOS, for weeks of server crashes/reverts
2) 1st weapon re-balance where they did not retroactively patch the existing weapons
3) 3D with it's ugly 3D graphics
4) Miniature high-heeled wearing daemons
5) The serpentine dragon is right up there as well
6) Reduction of 1 house per char to 1 house per account
7) Wiping my stabled pets during a couple of the patches
8) Doing away with counsellors
9) GMs seldom show themselves nowadays, they keep themselves invised and reply using canned messages. They used to be much more personable and you feel that they cared
10) Sampire nerf

 

[Lord Patapon]

...

QFT !

Oh, and I would add in the Worst list: EA and AoS (not only for Powerscrolls, but because of the changes made to gear, too, with all those % and stuff. Yuck.)

edit: and in the "Best" list, let me add the Classic serv... oops, that was for DAoC. My mistake.

 

[Freelsy]

This is so funny, seeing everyone say the worst thing for UO was Pub 16 and AOS. Those are probably the only reason most of us still play. I played before 16, just before trammel came out....like 1 month. If Pub 16 and AOS never happened, would you honestly still want to play the same damn thing for 10 plus years? I think not. Every single person in the game would have a Silver Indesructable Supremely Accurate Katana of Vanquishing, killing liche Lords in Deceit. There would be no diversity between skills, and disputes over taming and this template is so much stronger than that template. These changes are what makes UO the best damn MMO out there. I for one am with the Development team and the changes and additions they make to the game.

BEST CHANGE: EVERYTHING, keeping UO the best damn MMO out there!

WORST CHANGE: Cant think of one!

 

[Dorinda]

The worst change to Ultima Online was when the ability to make balances bows.

The most recent worst change to Ultima Online is Dread Horses and Greater Dragons.